On the Edge of the Abyss
by eknock
Summary: Shepard is an old name in the Alliance military, dating all the way back to its founding. The most famous, of course, is the hero of Elysium, Commander John Shepard... But Lieutenant Cassandra Shepard is certainly no pushover. Follow the story of the famous duo through the eyes of their companions.
1. Chapter 1

_Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams_

Ashley had never run so fast or for so long in her life, her legs burned as she struggled to stay ahead of the pursuing robots. She knew she wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer and as such began to look for a place to make a stand. She would be damned if she, a Williams, would die running from an enemy threatening a human colony. She rounded a corner and spotted a large rock jutting out of the ground next to the path a few meters ahead. _Perfect now if I can just reach it before they get around the corner. _She mentally cursed herself for jinxing it when she heard the sound of the strange machines' weapons firing behind and saw her shields flare as they stopped the projectiles. "Well, here goes nothing", she muttered to herself as she dived for the meagre cover provided and, after taking a deep breath, drew her sidearm. She carefully peered around the edge of the rock, feeling despair threaten to overtake her as she saw a large group of the synthetics spreading out to flank her. She leaned out of her cover, firing a precise volley of shots at the head of the nearest synthetic, sending it tumbling to the ground as the rest of the robots opened fire, forcing Ashley back into cover. _I guess this is the end _Ashley thought to herself as she prepared for a second volley, knowing that it would be the last before the robots reached the rock. Suddenly, the retort of a sniper rifle rang out from somewhere to Ashley's left, followed by a thud as the lead synthetic fell to the ground next to Ashley's rock. _Or not. _ Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth Ashley immediately leaned around the edge of her cover again shooting at the nearest robot as the unseen sniper fired again, dropping another of the synthetics, this one holding what appeared to be some kind of sniper rifle. Ashley fired at the remaining robots, the report of her pistol accompanied by the deeper, less frequent boom of the unseen sniper's rifle until the last of the synthetics fell, its head a mess of wires and leaking hydraulic tubes. Ashley stood up and turned towards the ridge the sniper shots had been coming from, hoping that another member of the garrison was on the other end of the rifle. She was mildly disappointed when the sniper stood up, revealing a small figure in black armour that didn't match the phoenix model issued to the garrison, _oh well_, thought Ashley, _at least they're human._ She was just about to begin making her way towards her newfound ally, when the sniper raised her rifle and fired a shot over Ashley's shoulder, startled she turned to see another squad of synthetics, almost twice as many as before, round the corner. The robot at the front of the group toppled with a gaping hole in its head. _There's too many of them_ Ashley thought as she fired a few shots at the nearest synthetic, not piercing the machine's kinetic barriers, before diving back behind the rock as a hail of return fire impacted her shields. _I guess there's no escaping it this time- _Ashley's thought was interrupted by a pair of blue orbs arcing over her head from the path behind her to impact the tightly packed synthetics, followed by the rattle of assault rifle fire and the crack of a heavy pistol. Ashley risked a look at her assailants only to see the synthetics reduced to a pile of wires and scrap metal. _I really should stop writing myself off so soon._ Ashley thought as she turned to see a pair of armoured men approaching her down the path with their weapons still smoking from recent use. _Two of them, standard fire team is three, so they must be with that sniper._ Ashley snapped the two men a salute, noticing the officer's markings on both their hardsuits, as well as the N7 Insignia on the larger of the two men. _No need to be rude to the superior officers who saved my life._

"What's your name, soldier?" the man with the N7 and commander's markings asked in a tone that wasn't unkind.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212th." Ashley replied, "Thank-you for the help commander, that sniper of yours must have saved my life half a dozen times over"

The Commander's head jerked up "what sniper?"

"The one covering me from the ridge over there just before the two of you arrived." Confused, Ashley looked over to the ridge once again, searching for a sign of the increasingly mysterious sniper.

"Not ours" replied the Commander, also turning to scan the ridgeline. "Whoever they were, I certainly wouldn't want to be in their crosshairs," she said to the Commander, "I don't think they missed a single headshot the entire time."

"Of course not" said a female voice from behind Ashley, "I never miss." Acting on instinct Ash whirled around towards the source of the voice, drawing her pistol, only to have it forced down when the Commander's massive hand came bearing down on her forearm.

"Stand down, Alenko!" the Commander shouted at the other man, who had reacted in a similar manner. The pistol in his right hand was levelled at the newcomer unlike Ashley, however, his left hand was wreathed in blue energy. At the Commander's order he lowered his pistol and closed his left hand, cutting off the blue glow. Ash took a moment to study the sniper as she collapsed her rifle and clipped it onto the receptacle on the back of her armour. Despite the armour, Ashley could see that she was a small woman with a slim athletic build and despite the seriousness of the situation was wearing a massive grin on the exposed portion of her face.

"Lieutenant Shepard reporting for duty, _sir_." The sniper said in a tone which, to Ashley, sounded downright insubordinate. She added to this impression by giving the Commander an exaggerated salute. _Huh, Shepard, I wonder if she's related to the hero of Elysium. Whoever she is, she's in for it now, no officer I've met would take that kind of crap even on a battlefield. _However, to Ash's immense surprise, the Commander responded to the insubordination by stepping forward and enveloping the woman in a bear hug that looked like it could have cracked the small woman's ribs if she hadn't been wearing armour.

"It's good to see you, Cass. I was worried." The commander said to the woman in a quiet voice that Ashley barely heard before he released the Lieutenant.

"Worried?" the woman replied in a mocking tone, "You don't feel fear, remember? All those news reports on the blitz said so." Both the commander and the lieutenant laughed, and Ashley even more confused now than before turned to the other man, whom the Commander had addressed as Alenko. "Sir, do you have any idea what's going on here?"

"I'm afraid not, Chief. Shepard's been unusually quiet since we received the transmission about the attack, even more so since..." he trailed off, "Say, wasn't that you in the video?"

"Yes, it was and I'm surprised you got it at all, the trouble we were having with our radio's when the attack started…" Ashley trailed off. "I thought Lieutenant Shepard wasn't a member of your team. I mean you did point your gun at her." _And some freaky space magic too, but I probably shouldn't mention that._

"What? No, I meant the Commander" said Alenko

"Wait" said Ashley "that's _the_ Commander Shepard? As in faced down a thousand angry Batarians alone with nothing but a pistol, hero of Elysium Commander Shepard?"

"It was only five hundred." interrupted the Commander, who had finished talking with the other woman and was now standing with his arms crossed in front of him, obviously waiting for her and Alenko to finish speaking. Next to him, Lieutenant Shepard stood in exactly the same stance.

"The official report said _seven _hundred." The female Shepard piped up in a tone that seemed to Ashley to be almost proud. "And if you ask him to sign your chest plate I will have to kill you, him too if he actually does it."

"So are you Mrs. Shepard?" Ashley asked, still trying to get over meeting her hero, the great Commander Shepard in person and not paying particular attention to the need to keep her foot out of her mouth.

"Ew gross! I'm his sister" said the woman, making the Commander chuckle.

_Nice going Williams you really put your foot in it this time, saying something like that to the Special Forces sniper who saved your life and in front of the hero of Elysium no less_

"Okay." Said the Commander "enough of this. Williams, do you know where the Prothean beacon is?"

"The dig site is just up ahead, sir. It should be there." Ashley hesitated. She was more than a little intimidated by both the commander's reputation and by the way he towered over her but she wouldn't let that stop her. "Sir, with your permission, I'd like to come with you."

The commander stared intently at her, not looking her in the eye, but rather at a point just over her right shoulder. "If you want to accompany us then you need to answer one important question first." Ashley nodded "Where's your damn rifle, marine_?_" He shouted in a voice that would have put most drill sergeants to shame. Ashley flinched and looked down at the ground, embarrassed "I threw it at one of the robots, sir"

"And what in the galaxy possessed you to do such a thing?" Shepard growled.

"It had overheated and the synthetic had a shot lined up on one of my squad mates' back, sir. I threw it at the thing to throw off its aim and give myself time to draw my sidearm", she replied still feeling absolutely mortified that she had lost her rifle before meeting the greatest living hero in the Alliance military. To Ash's surprise Shepard didn't immediately berate her for the gross mistreatment of her weapon.

"And what happened to this squad mate?" he asked in a softer voice.

Ash held back the tears threatening to well up in her eyes, "Dead," she said sadly, her eyes still fixed on the ground. "We were ambushed further down the road a few minutes later. I was the only one to make it out alive."

Shepard reached over his shoulder and pulled out his own assault rifle. "Here, Take this."

"But sir" Ashley objected, "what about you?"

"I've still got my shotgun and…" The Commander's hand wreathed in a bright blue glow for a moment. "So I'll be fine."

"Yes Sir." Ashley replied, her hands tightening around the rifle.

"And Williams," Shepard added, "Try not to throw this one at any synthetics."

"I'll do my best" Ashley responded wryly. _Joking about breaking the hero of Elysium's gun, way to go Williams _"I mean sir yes sir"

The Commander turned to move out, "Chief, you're on point with me, lieutenant…." Shepard paused as both lieutenants came to attention and then looked at each other. "Okay. From now on Lieutenants, you are Alenko and Shepard at all times. Likewise you will all need to call me Commander rather than Shepard" he said looking at Alenko, "or anything else" he added turning his gaze towards his sister who nodded with a grin. With the possible sources of confusion cleared up the four of them moved down the path, eyes searching for the slightest hint of danger.

* * *

After walking in silence for a few moments Ashley's curiosity got the better of her. "Does anyone know what the things attacking the colony are?"

"Geth" Shepard replied without hesitation. The Commander turned to look at his sister, "there was a photo of a Geth attached to the entry on Quarian history", she explained, "and you were right. Reading the codex's more obscure entries is definitely a good way to pass time on long trips."

"No learning is ever wasted." the Commander said with a smile as they continued.

_These 'Geth' are going to get what's coming to them _Ashley thought grimly as the group continued towards the dig site.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note:**

**So here's chapter two. A big thanks to Boopstar for being an excellent proof reader and board.**

* * *

_Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams_

After reaching the dig site without further encounters with the geth, Ashley was dismayed to find it devoid of any Prothean beacon, although not so upset to find it full of geth. _It's time for some payback you synthetic bastards. _Ashley thought as, following the commander's orders, the team advanced on the geth, moving from cover to cover. Ashley was excited to see Commander Shepard in action, although she didn't let it stop her from gunning down as many geth as she could with her borrowed rifle. The giant of a man moved with a speed that astounded her. _I wish I could move that fast. If I could then perhaps some of my unit would still be alive. _The Commanderalternately blasted geth apart with his shotgun and threw them into walls or each other with pulses of blue energy, all the while highlighting priority targets on the HUDs of Ashley and the rest of the number of geth falling to the ground without their heads as the resounding boom of Lieutenant Shepard's sniper rifle rang out did not escape Ashley's notice either, Shepard may have been dropping geth almost as fast as her brother was. Before too long the last of them fell to a pair of electrical overloads from the two Lieutenants' omni tools.

The Commander turned to face Ashley. "Williams," _oh boy he doesn't look happy that that beacon's not here. I'm in for it now. _"You're familiar with the area. Any thoughts on where it might have been moved to?" _Okay. Perhaps I'm not going to get left behind or shot. _"The scientists' research camp is just up ahead. If they were the ones who moved the beacon it's likely either there or at the spaceport, sir"

"Very good, Williams." the Commander replied before speaking into his radio "Nihlus, we're at the dig site but the beacon isn't here. We're moving on to the next likely location." There was a pause, Ashley couldn't hear whatever this 'Nihlus' guy was saying but it clearly wasn't much as moments later the Commander spoke again "Roger that. Be careful. Shepard out." Shepard turned to face the team. "Alright everyone, let's move out."

* * *

At the brisk pace that the Commander set, they came within sight of the research base within minutes. What was once a neat cluster of prefabricated buildings now looked like a scene from a nightmare. Several of the buildings were now no more than flaming wrecks and a dozen strange spikes supported on tripods were scattered around the camp. Ashley was sickened to see human bodies impaled on the spikes, including one in marine armour. All of the corpses seemed to be covered in a strange blue substance. A pair of geth came into view around the corner of one of the few intact buildings. "On my mark. Shepard, you take the one on the left. Alenko, lift the one on the right. Ready?" His question was met by a pair of quiet affirmatives "Mark." said the Commander and Lieutenant Shepard's rifle jerked leaving her target without a head. At the same time, the Commander and Alenko both sent blue projectiles arcing towards the remaining geth. Alenko's hit first, enveloping the geth in a blue haze for a moment before it was struck by Commander's turbulent looking projectile. The geth disappeared in an explosion of blue energy. At the Commander's hand signal the team walked into the central area of the research base. _Great, not here either I hope the geth haven't_… Ashley's thought was interrupted by a series of metallic sliding noises to her right. She turned to see the spikes retracting into their stands allowing the impaled victims to fall to the ground. _At least they're not up there anymore. it looks like those spikes were doing something to them._ Ashley was about to move forward to collect the dog tags of the dead marine when the body moved, pulling itself upright and beginning to shuffle towards Ashley and the rest of the team "Commander, He's still alive!" Ashley called out, relieved that she might not be the only survivor from the garrison. Shepard turned, looking startled, at the quickly approaching figure. "Hold position, Marine" he shouted "We can get you to medical help, but you need to stay there." The marine's only response was an inhuman sounding moan. Behind the marine Ashley saw the rest of the impaled corpses rise to their feet and begin approaching the group. "All of you, stop!" the Commander shouted "We can help you but you need to stay where you are." The marine stopped. "Thank you." the Commander said. "Now, if you can all…" Whatever else the Commander was going to say was cut off as the marine briefly glowed a bright blue then exploded in a storm of electricity. Ashley's suit began beeping urgently as her shields overloaded. She looked up and saw the other corpses had almost reached them and were showing no signs of slowing down and that the marine was getting up again. "Fire!" the commander ordered, sounding reluctant. _I'm so sorry, _Ashley thought as she levelled her rifle at what had once been a fellow marine and pulled the trigger. It took a surprisingly long time for him to fall. _Too long! _Thought Ashley as she turned her rifle on the next creature. _At this rate they're going to reach us before we've stopped even half of them. _ Out of the corner of her eye, Ashley saw the Commander drop his shotgun and begin to glow a bright blue. With a shout, he threw both hands forward, creating a blue wave which threw the creatures through what was left of the wall of one of the burning buildings. Ashley sighed with relief and was about to lower her rifle when one of the creatures emerged from the flaming building, running towards them at a fast lope. Before Ashley could target it, the creature was thrown backwards off its feet by the combined force of Alenko's biotics and a hurried shot from Lieutenant Shepard's sniper rifle. To Ashley's horrified amazement the creature, which was now missing an arm, attempted to rise to its feet again only to be stopped by the Commander's boot placed in the centre of its chest. Ashley noticed that the Commander was breathing very heavily and she could hear a faint alarm coming from his helmet. He drew his sidearm and pointed it at the creature's head, "I'm sorry." he said and fired.

The Commander turned from what was left of the creature and bent down to retrieve his shotgun from where he had dropped it. The rest of the team gathered around him. Ashley noticed that the younger Shepard looked visibly sickened. "We just killed those colonists!" she said. The Commander got up and hugged his sister tightly. "No, we didn't. They were already dead. Those things that we put down were lifeless husks.

"But…" she said

"No buts" said the Commander quietly, "the geth killed those colonists, not you."

"Okay." she said, straightening. The commander let her go and stepped away.

"It doesn't look like the beacon's here either. I'll radio Nihlus and then we'll…"

A Shot rang out from in the distance, ominously loud in the quiet of the devastated camp. "Is anyone hit?" the Commander asked urgently. Ashley gave herself a quick once over and shook her head. The other two followed with their own negatives. "Then we need to get moving. Williams, take us to the spaceport." The team moved out with Ashley on point. Behind her she could hear the Commander trying, without any success, to raise Nihlus.

* * *

After ten minutes and several minor skirmishes with the geth, during which Ashley noticed that the Commander didn't use his biotics at all, they arrived at the deserted edge of the spaceport. In the middle of the loading docks lay an armoured turian, lying in a pool of blue blood. _Strange, you don't see many turians on Eden Prime. I wonder if he had anything to do with the attack. _"Alenko," the Commander said in a subdued tone, "put down another locator. We'll come back for him when we can." _I guess not then. _"Commander!" Shepard called out, "I heard movement over there." All four of the team members turned, their guns at the ready. "Wait, I'm coming out and I'm unarmed," a terrified voice called out from behind the nearby pile of crates. A man in civilian clothing stepped into view with his hands raised. "Who are you?" the commander asked, lowering his weapon and gesturing for the others to do the same. "Powell. My name is Powell." The man replied.

"How long have you been back there?" Shepard asked. "Did you see what happened to the turian?"

"The other one shot him while his back was turned."

"What do you mean the other one?" Shepard asked. "Tell me the whole story."

Powell took a deep breath before beginning. "The other turian was here for a few minutes before that one over there arrived." Powell said pointing at Nihlus' body, "He ordered the robots to move that beacon, those scientists found, to the centre of the space port. A few minutes later this turian arrived and greeted the man as Saren. He talked to the other turian talked like they knew each other and then turned to look at the spaceport. That was when the other one shot him in the back of the head." Despite Nihlus being an alien and a stranger to boot, Ashley couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. _Betrayed and murdered in cold blood, not even a turian deserves that. _"What did this Saren do next?" The Commander asked.

"He took that tram over there in the same direction as the robots took the beacon."

"Thank you, Powell. You've cleared up a couple of mysteries." The Commander said before turning towards the tram. "Alright, team, everybody on. I Know I'm stating the obvious but keep an eye out for hostiles on the way." They all boarded the tram and it began to move.

Half way to the other terminal, Ashley's ears were assaulted by a familiar metallic roar. Moments later the terrifying alien dreadnaught, which had arrived at the beginning of the attack, rose into view and quickly accelerated away from the colony and into space. Ashley shivered involuntarily, remembering the horror of the initial attack. After a moment she felt a comforting hand rest briefly on her shoulder. "Hang in there, Williams." said Shepard from behind her. Ashley steeled herself and resumed watching for geth.

Ashley wasn't surprised to find a squad of geth waiting for them at the tram terminal and neither was the Commander. He began highlighting priority targets as soon as the geth came into view. Shepard immediately began picking off the highest priority targets while the rest waited to get close enough. The battle was over within seconds of the tram stopping with the remaining geth falling quickly to the coordinated fire of the team.

The team exited the tram, fanning out to search for any stragglers. Ashley and the Commander rounded a corner onto a raised walkway, each covering a different direction. Ashley spotted a large cylinder with a flashing display sitting on the ground two meters ahead of her. _A bomb. Great! And I thought that today couldn't get any more hectic. _ "Commander!" she called out, "I've got what looks like an active bomb here."

"Alenko, Shepard, get over there and see if you can disarm it." The two lieutenants rounded the corner at a run, their omni tools already lit up. "Williams," Shepard called "with me. We've got geth coming up the ramp." Ashley turned and ran to where the Commander crouched, firing his side arm at the still distant geth. Together they turned the squad of geth into a pile if scrap metal and hydraulic fluid. After the last geth had fallen the commander stood up, his pistol still at the ready, Ashley followed suit. "Got it." Shouted Alenko. The two lieutenants stood up and jogged over to join the Commander and Ashley. "Commander," Alenko reported, "the bomb is disabled but there are six others." Shepard continued the explanation. "They're all networked so that they detonate simultaneously. As such, we have the locations of the other six and know that they all have the same shutdown command." Shepard's omni tool activated for a second and six markers appeared on Ashley's HUD. "Do we know how long we have before they detonate?" Asked the Commander. Alenko looked at his omni tool. "Four minutes fifty seven seconds, Commander. I'm sending everyone the time now." A small timer appeared in the bottom left corner of Ashley's HUD. "It should only take Shepard or me a few seconds to input the shutdown code when we get to each bomb." Ashley looked at the locations of the six bombs. _We're going to be cutting it very fine and there's no way the geth are just going to sit back and let us disarm the bombs. "_We need to split up." Shepard stated, obviously coming to the same conclusion. He activated his own omni tool and numbers appeared next to the markers on Ashley's HUD. "Shepard, you take bombs one, two and three. Williams, you watch her back. Alenko, I'll cover you while you deactivate bombs three, four and five." Everyone nodded. "Move out."

* * *

As Ashley predicted, the geth were guarding the bombs in large numbers. She and Shepard fought their way to the first bomb and Shepard dived to the interface, rapidly punching the shutdown command, while Ashley fired on any geth who so much as looked in their direction. Seconds later they were moving again, sprinting towards the second bomb. Ashley was surprised to notice that no geth reinforcements had arrived. _Maybe the rest of them left on that dreadnaught, _thought Ashley as she fired at the advancing geth. On the other side of the docking bay, Ashley could see the Commander felling waves of geth, alternating between his shotgun and his sidearm, clearly to avoid overheating either. _He's still not using his biotics. Has something happened? _Ashley didn't have time to ponder the question further as, at that moment, the biggest geth she'd ever seen began to advance towards her. Ashley opened up with her borrowed assault rifle but saw powerful kinetic barriers flare up around the monstrosity. "Shepard, hurry up with that bomb. I need a hand with this thing." Shepard finished inputting the shutdown code just as Ashley put her rifle away and switched to her sidearm, following the Commander's lead and avoiding the overheating issue. She stood up and pointed her omni tool at the advancing geth, overloading its shields. The massive geth fell moments later to the combined fire of the two soldiers' pistols. "Quick." shouted Shepard, "We need to get to the last bomb." The two ran towards the last bomb, reaching it as the timer on Ash's HUD ticked down to the one minute mark. Only two geth tried to rush them as Shepard disarmed their last bomb. The rest were dead or focusing on the Commander and Alenko, who were arriving at their last bomb as well. Shepard finished deactivating the bomb as Ashley finished off the second geth. Together they made their way over walkways strewn with geth pieces towards the central courtyard. The timer on Ashley's HUD reached zero without anything exploding and she let out a sigh of relief. She let out another one when she saw the Prothean beacon standing intact in the middle of the courtyard. "Commander," she said over the radio, "we've located the beacon."


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note:**

**From here on, I hope to be able to have a new chapter every week.**

* * *

_Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko_

"Commander, we've located the beacon."

"Copy that, Williams" We're on our way," replied Shepard over the radio. Kaiden got up from the geth he had been examining. He had hoped to pull its memory core to find out more about why the geth had attacked but it seemed that, like the other geth he had scanned, this one had flashed its memory core. Kaiden followed the Commander as they wove their way around piles of crates to meet up with Shepard and Williams. Within moments they came into sight of a strange grey obelisk with veins of glowing green running up its surface. It looked sufficiently alien that Kaiden concluded it must be the beacon even before he spotted Shepard and Williams standing a few meters from the thing. "Good work with the bombs, Shepard", the commander said nodding to his sister, "and good work keeping her in one piece, Williams." Kaiden could see Williams begin to blush slightly at the compliment. "Alenko," he continued and Kaiden turned to face him, "contact Anderson and let him know that we've…" The Commander stopped talking and sprinted towards the beacon. Kaiden turned to see Williams being dragged towards the beacon by an unseen force. In an instant the Commander reached Williams and threw her back towards the rest of the group. Kaiden's sigh of relief was cut short when the Commander rose into the air in front of the beacon, which had begun glowing even brighter than before. "John!" Shouted Shepard, her body tensing. Kaiden could see that she was about to try to pull him away from the beacon's grip. "Stay back!" shouted Kaiden, not knowing if it was the right decision. "We need to find a way to shut it off from a distance." Kaiden could see that Shepard was still ready to jump to the Commander's aid but she didn't get the opportunity as, at that moment, the beacon exploded knocking Shepard, Kaiden and Williams to the ground and sending the Commander flying through the air. Kaiden watched helplessly as the commander's helmeted head hit the ground with a sickening crack.

* * *

Shepard and Williams were kneeling next to the Commander's prone form within seconds, carefully pulling off his helmet and checking his vitals. "He's still got a pulse." reported Williams. "He's still breathing." added Shepard, sounding worried despite the good news. Kaiden activated his radio and tried to hail the Normandy, hoping that the jamming had stopped when the dreadnaught left. "This is Lieutenant Alenko. The spaceport is secure but we need immediate extraction. Commander Shepard is down. I repeat, Commander Shepard is down."

"Copy that Lieutenant." came Anderson's reply. "We'll have Chakwas on standby when we touch down. Anderson out."

Kaiden walked over to join Shepard and Williams. Shepard had her omni tool out and was scanning the commander. "His neck and back aren't broken but I can't tell any more than that. We need to get help." She said. Kaiden could hear the barely suppressed panic in her voice.

"The Normandy, the frigate that the Commander and I are stationed on, is inbound. The doctor on board is one of the best."

* * *

Shepard and Williams were kneeling next to the Commander's prone form within seconds, carefully pulling off his helmet and checking his vitals. "He's still got a pulse." reported Williams. "He's still breathing." added Shepard, sounding worried despite the good news. Kaiden activated his radio and tried to hail the Normandy, hoping that the jamming had stopped when the dreadnaught left. "This is Lieutenant Alenko. The spaceport is secure but we need immediate extraction. Commander Shepard is down. I repeat, Commander Shepard is down."

"Copy that Lieutenant." came Anderson's reply. "We'll have Chakwas on standby when we touch down. Anderson out."

Kaiden walked over to join Shepard and Williams. Shepard had her omni tool out and was scanning the commander. "His neck and back aren't broken but I can't tell any more than that. We need to get help." She said. Kaiden could hear the barely suppressed panic in her voice.

"The Normandy, the frigate that the Commander and I are stationed on, is inbound. The doctor on board is one of the best."

Within minutes the Normandy landed at their position. Despite the dire circumstances Kaiden couldn't help but admire the new frigate. It was a beautiful ship, built along much sleeker lines than normal human or turian vessels.

The Normandy's cargo bay opened and Dr. Chakwas ran down the ramp accompanied by two crewmen carrying a stretcher. At the doctor's orders, the Commander was carefully lifted onto the stretcher and carried to the med bay as the ship lifted off. The team followed her but were shooed out by Chakwas before she began examining Shepard's head.

At that moment Anderson walked onto the crew deck. "What happened down there Alenko?" he asked. "Where are Jenkins and Nihlus?" Kaiden took a moment to order his thoughts before replying.

"Sir, the forces attacking the colony were geth. Jenkins was killed during the first engagement and we found Nihlus dead, killed by another turian according to an eye witness. We tagged both with locator beacons for recovery."

Anderson nodded and activated the ships intercom. "Joker we have two locators in the vicinity, set us down for recovery operations."

"Aye sir." Came the unusually serious response.

"Now Alenko, who are those two?" the captain asked, pointing at Shepard and Williams.

"That's Gunnery Chief Williams and Lieutenant…" Kaiden's response was cut off when Shepard walked over to the two of them, removing her helmet on the way revealing her bright red shoulder length hair.

"Captain Anderson?" She exclaimed. Kaiden saw recognition cross Anderson's face.

"Why if it isn't little Cassandra Shepard." he said, "You've grown since I last saw you." A weak smile crossed her face. "It's good to see Captain, though I wish it were under better circumstances."

"He's in good hands." Anderson reassured her, "Chakwas is the best military doctor the Alliance has. Now, both of you take Williams and head to the armoury. No sense waiting around for news in full armour."

"Aye sir," replied Kaiden. He walked over to where Williams was standing at the entrance to the med bay. "Williams, come with me. We need to get our gear stowed." She followed without a word. The three of them took the slow ride down the elevator to the cargo bay, where they removed their armour quickly, none of them wanting to miss any updates on the Commander's status. The three returned to the main deck and sat at the mess table. A few minutes later Anderson walked into the mess area, gesturing for the table's occupants to remain seated. "I need to know exactly what happened." he said, "Starting with what happened to Shepard…" he gestured towards the med bay, making it clear which Shepard he meant, "and what happened to the beacon."

"It's hard to describe sir." said Kaiden "The beacon picked Shepard off the ground and then exploded. He was caught in the blast."

"It's my fault, sir." interjected Williams, "I must have gotten too close to the beacon and it started to pull me towards it. The Commander threw me out of the way but got caught by it himself." Williams looked apprehensive while Anderson considered this. "It doesn't sound like it was anybody's fault." he stated eventually. "None of the data we received about the beacon suggested that it would do what it did. Now tell me what happened to Nihlus."

* * *

Kaiden, Williams and Shepard spent the next hour being thoroughly questioned about every aspect of their encounter. Kaiden was exhausted by the time Anderson left to file his report and to 'make arrangements' as he put it. "I think it's time for some proper introductions." said Kaiden, breaking the silence. "I'm Kaiden."

"I'm Cass." replied Shepard

"Ashley" said Williams "or just Ash."

"So why were you on Eden Prime Cass?" asked Kaiden, hoping to get some kind of conversation going to break the sombre mood around the table.

"It was a stop over." replied Cass, "I was on my way to Earth for N6 training."

"You look a little young to be an N5." said Ashley.

"I'm hoping to break John's record for youngest N7 in history." replied Cass.

"John? That's the Commander, right?" asked Ashley.

"That's right."

"What was it like growing up with the hero of Elysium?"

Cass laughed. "Try to get a grip on that hero worship, Williams. John tries to hide it but that sort of thing really embarrasses him."

"Come on, what was he like growing up?" asked Alenko. He was very curious. He didn't know much about Commander Shepard's youth, despite having worked with him for over a year.

"John and I grew up on various alliance support vessels. Our mother refused dozens of promotions so that she wouldn't be transferred onto a ship that she couldn't have us with her on."

"What about your father?" asked Ashley.

"John knew him but I never did. He died in a slaver attack just before I was born."

"Sorry." said Ashley, looking embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it" said Cass, "Like I said, I never knew him." Cass was quiet for a moment before continuing, "John was sent away to the Ascension Project when he started showing signs of being a biotic. I was five at the time. He was signed up for the navy as soon as his training finished."

Alenko nodded. He was familiar with the not quite conscription that the Alliance practiced on biotics.

"Not long after he left, our mother was offered a position on the SSV Einstein. The Captain of the Einstein was willing to let me stay on the ship when it wasn't on manoeuvres. That's where I met Captain Anderson, by the way. He was the captain of the SSV Tokyo at the time." Cass shook her head, "But you wanted to know about growing up with John. I didn't see him from the time he left until he finished basic training but once he finished, he was the best older brother I could ask for." She smiled, "Whenever he could manage it, he'd arrange to have his shore leave while the Einstein was away on manoeuvres. The military bases I was left on while the Einstein was away weren't bad places but it was tough not knowing anyone there. John would pick me up and spend his shore leave with me. We still message each other regularly and try to meet up when we can," Cass looked around, "although had didn't mention that his new posting was on such a nice looking ship."

"Don't be too tough him." said Kaiden. "Almost everything about the Normandy is classified. All any of us are about to say to our families is the name of the ship and that Captain Anderson is the CO."

"So what's so special about it?" asked Cass.

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you." replied Kaiden, struggling to keep a straight face. Ashley and Cass Laughed, ruining Kaiden's attempt to remain serious. Before long, the conversation moved on to trivial matters. Kaiden was pleased, he had managed to get their minds off the Commander and they both looked

* * *

Half an hour later, the door to Anderson's cabin opened and he stepped out walking over to join the three at the mess table. "Shepard, the Normandy is headed for the Citadel. From there you have passage booked on a civilian ship headed for Earth. Expect a stopover of about two days."

"Thank you, sir." replied Cass.

"Williams, you've applied for a transfer to a shipboard posting six times in the past year. Correct?"

"That's right, sir." said Ashley, looking slightly sheepish.

"I've put in a request to General Heaphy of the 10th Frontier Division. Effective immediately you have been transferred to my command on the Normandy."

Ashley turned bright red. "Th-thank you, sir."

Kadin reached over and shook Ashley's hand. "Welcome to the Normandy, Chief." he said.

Anderson left the mess hall for the CIC leaving the three alone at the table again. Before Kaiden could try to start another conversation, the med bay door opened and Dr. Chakwas emerged. Cass immediately jumped up from her seat, hurrying over to the doctor.

"Before you start bombarding me with questions, young lady, the Commander is going to be fine. He had minor concussion and he bio-amp was overloaded."

"Is he awake?" asked Cass, looking ready to rush into the med bay.

"Not yet but now that I've finished working on him, there's space for one person to wait in the med bay for him to come to."

"That should be Lieutenant Shepard here." Said Alenko, before Cass had to ask. Ashley nodded.

"Thank you." Cass said simply and walked into the med bay with Chakwas.

Ashley stood in front of the door. Clearly planning to wait. "Ashley," said Kaiden softly, "why don't you go get your gear stowed? There are some spare lockers next to the armoury. You might want to give the Commander's rifle a once over before you return it too."

Ashley nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right." With that, Ashley left the mess hall, leaving Kaiden alone. He sat back down and began to write his report of the mission.


	4. Chapter 4

_Tali'Zorah nar Rayya_

Tali took a deep breath and peeked around the pile of rocks she was hiding behind at the lone geth unit. She had been watching the squad of geth for several hours, waiting for a chance to catch one by surprise. _Nice genocidal metal bosh'tet, _she thought as she crept out of her hiding place,_ don't turn around. There's nothing to see over here. _ She got within arm's reach of the geth without incident and activated her omni tool. The geth fell to the ground, deactivated, and Tali hurried to remove its memory core before the geth runtimes could flash all of the data. After a tense ten seconds of frantic work, Tali pocketed the geth's memory core and hurried back towards the colony. If she was lucky, she would be out of sight before the rest of the geth showed up to investigate their missing sentry.

* * *

_Commander John Shepard_

John woke with a start and sat bolt upright.

"Doctor!" shouted a familiar voice. "Doctor Chakwas, he's awake!"

"Lie back down, Commander," ordered Chakwas, seeing John trying to get up. Grudgingly, the commander lay back down on the bed in what he realised was the med bay of the Normandy.

"What happened?" asked Shepard.

"The beacon picked you up and then exploded." said Cass.

"Is everyone else alright?"

Chakwas stepped towards John with her arms folded in front of her.

"Everyone else is fine." she said, "You, however, are most certainly not. You had a major concussion when you were brought in and have managed to break _another_ bio amp. I've repaired the damage and replaced the amp but you're on supervised bed rest for the next twenty-four hours. John groaned. "Can't I just do community service or something?"

"I'm afraid not, Commander" replied Chakwas. John could see that she was suppressing a laugh. He turned to his sister, putting on his most winning smile, "Cass, you've got to get me out of here." Cass laughed, shaking her head. "After two hours in a room with her, I'm more afraid of Dr. Chakwas then I am of you, John, so you're on your own for the prison break." Despite the threat of impending bed rest, John couldn't help but laugh. It was good to see his sister again.

Chakwas cleared her throat. "Commander, while you were unconscious, scans showed signs associated with vivid dreaming…" Taking a hint, John thought back to the chaotic images and impressions which had flooded his mind when the beacon had grabbed him. "I'm not sure what I saw. The images were very hazy, but I could feel an overwhelming sense of despair behind them." After a moment, Chakwas nodded. "I'll include that in my report." She turned and walked back into her office.

John turned to Cass. "So what do you think of the Normandy?"

After several minutes of idle conversation about the merits of the Normandy compared to other Alliance ships John and Cass had served on, the door to the main deck opened and Anderson walked in. "It's good to see you in one piece Commander. How's your head?"

"Minor throbbing, sir, nothing serious." replied Shepard.

Anderson turned to face Cass. "I'm sorry, Cassandra, but I need to speak to John in private." Cass left the room with a nod and a salute.

"I've read Alenko's report, Shepard, and I'm not going to lie to you. Things look bad. Nihlus is dead, the beacon is destroyed and the Geth are invading. The council is going to want answers."

"I stand by my actions, sir, there was nothing more my team and I could have done." Anderson nodded. "Alenko's report said that the dockworker overheard Nihlus call his killer _Saren_. Is this correct?"

"Yes, sir."

Anderson frowned. "That's not good. Saren Arterius is a spectre. He's the council's top agent and if he's working with the Geth then he's gone rogue."

John frowned. "He's working with the Geth, Captain, and he attacked a human colony. He needs to be brought to justice."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, Shepard. Saren is untouchable. We need to get the Council to revoke his spectre status before we can go after him. We're two days out from the Citadel. I've sent word to the ambassador so we should have an audience arranged when we arrive. Once we present our evidence we should be able to go after Saren." John nodded but he wasn't so sure that the Council would accept the unconfirmed testimony of a single dock worker.

"If that's all sir, I have a letter to write." Anderson gave a sympathetic look and left the med bay. Alone for the first time since waking up, John began the painful process of writing the letter that Jenkins' family never wanted to receive.

* * *

_C-Sec Officer Garrus Vakarian_

Garrus' omni tool chimed. He brought up the new message.

**_Vakarian,_**

**_Meet me in my office immediately. I have a job for you._**

**_Executor Pallin._**

Pleased for any excuse for a break from his paperwork, Garrus got up and made his way to the Executor's office in the Presidium.

Upon Garrus' arrival, Pallin handed him a data pad and got straight to the point. "Vakarian, the humans have lodged a complaint against Spectre Saren Arterius. I need you to investigate any ties Saren may have with the Geth."

Garrus was stunned. '_Geth_', it was such a strange, and very specific allegation to make. He quickly recovered and nodded to the Executor. "Sir, I will begin my investigation immediately, but I'll need access to Saren's personnel files, his mission reports and…"

"Request denied Vakarian." said Pallin, "All of Saren's files are classified and the council is not willing to open them, even to C-Sec, without credible evidence of misconduct on the part of Saren."

"But, sir…"

"The matter is closed and without more evidence than the humans have provided, nothing you nor I can say will sway the council." Although Garrus knew that Pallin wasn't particularly fond of humans in general, he could see that the Executor was fuming about the stonewalling he was clearly receiving from the council.

"Sir, I can't investigate without anything to go on"

Pallin sighed. "I can authorize you to access internal C-Sec reports from cases involving Saren. It's not much, but it's a place to start."

"Thank you, sir" replied Garrus. He left Pallin's office and headed for the C-Sec archives.


	5. Chapter 5

_Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams_

Ashley sat at the workbench of the Normandy's armoury, inspecting the trigger assembly of the Commander's disassembled rifle for any traces of dirt or stress fractures. She had looked over the Commander's rifle several times in the hours since she had come aboard the Normandy and hadn't found anything amiss after her first inspection. If Ashley was to be honest with herself, she was feeling guilty. In a single day she had lost her entire unit and had almost gotten the hero of Elysium killed. And yet somehow she had ended up with a posting she had always wanted under the command of Commander Shepard himself. The Commander had been awake for a full day but Ashley couldn't bring herself to visit him in the med bay. Satisfied that the trigger mechanism hadn't corroded or broken in the three hours since she had last checked it, Ashley carefully reassembled the rifle. "I believe congratulations are in order, Williams." came the Commander's voice from behind Ashley as she locked the last component of the rifle into place, "Welcome to the Normandy."

Ashley jumped to her feet, tangling her legs in her chair. After a brief scramble, during which she only narrowly avoided sprawling face first onto the deck, Ashley came to attention, snapping off a sharp salute. _Smooth, Williams. Real smooth. _The corners of the Commander's lips twitched upwards with the ghost of a smile. "At ease, Williams. How about we save the salutes for the Captain from now on?" The Commander's face broke out in a grin "To avoid injuries in the future."

"Yes, Commander." said Ashley, fighting off the blush which threatened to rise to her cheeks. "I want to apologise, sir, for what happened with the beacon. You got caught in that thing because I got careless and you had to pull me out."

Shepard stayed silent for a moment before replying. "Williams, given the circumstances, what happened with the beacon was the best possible outcome."

"Um, Commander, just how hard did you hit your head?" asked Ashley. _That's it, Williams, dig yourself a deeper hole. _Far from being offended by Ashley's latest case of foot in mouth syndrome, the Commander laughed before continuing.

"If the beacon was on a proximity trigger, which it seemed to be, then we would never have gotten it onto the Normandy without someone getting caught in it. As it is, no one was killed in the explosion. Things would have been much worse if it had detonated with more people nearby." Ashley thought on that for a moment before replying. "I guess so, sir." Hoping to change the subject, Ashley turned to the workbench and picked up the Commander's rifle. "Here you go, sir, as promised I didn't throw it at any geth."

"You keep it, Williams." Said the Commander. Ashley looked down at the rifle. It was a Special Forces model, years ahead of the standard issue rifle she had lost on Eden Prime.

"Commander, I can't take this." She said, pushing the rifle towards the Commander. He gently pushed it back.

"You need a new rifle anyway, Williams, and if you put in for a replacement, you'll be sent the same standard issue… Avenger?" Ashley nodded. "Avenger model that you lost. On the other hand, if I put in for a replacement, they'll send me another rifle exactly like the one you're holding." The Commander grinned. "There are advantages to being N7."

"Okay, Commander, if you're sure."

"I'm sure, Williams. From what I've seen, you're a hell of a soldier and I look forward to working with you." Ashley laughed bitterly, "I think you might change your mind after you read my file. It seemed to have that effect on all my other COs."

The Commander looked perplexed. "Williams, I read you file. There's nothing in your file but technical scores and a list of crap assignments."

"There's no note about my family or anything?"

The Commander shook his head. "It just says that you have living relatives. Is there something I need to know?"

Ashley took a deep breath, wishing she had kept her mouth shut. "My grandfather was General Williams, the Commander of the Shanxi garrison during the first contact war and the only human to ever surrender a colony to an alien occupation force."

Shepard frowned. _Hopefully he'll wait for the ship to reach the citadel before he throws me out of the airlock. _"And this is why you haven't been promoted since you finished basic training?" asked Shepard eventually.

"Yes, sir." Said Ashley.

"Williams, I'm going to talk to Captain Anderson about this. Between the two of us, we should get it straightened out before too long." The Commander clapped her on the shoulder before turning and leaving the armoury. "Keep up the good work, chief." He called over his shoulder.

Ashley sat back down at the workbench, stunned, staring at the rifle in her hands.

* * *

_C-Sec Officer Garrus Vakarian_

Garrus opened the last report and sighed. 'Redacted', if he never saw that word again in his life, it would be too soon. The word was everywhere in every single report on incidents where Saren had been involved in any way. All that was left were the dates the reports were filed on. Garrus was an experienced investigator who had long since learned to trust his instincts and something about the whole situation with Saren rubbed him the wrong way. He shut down the archive terminal and got up. He was convinced that there was something to the humans' allegations against Saren but he knew he wasn't going to find anything more in the archives. Garrus left the C-Sec office and headed home. He had been working through reports non-stop for almost twenty-four hours and it was time to call it a night.

* * *

_Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya_

Tali ran through the empty streets of the Presidium, clutching her wounded arm. She took a moment to wish that she had never found the data on that memory core. On her way to the Citadel, she had sent a message to an asari information broker, hoping to sell the information she had found about some turian working with the geth. Upon arriving at the broker's office, she found the asari dead and a group of turians with guns waiting for her. She had escaped but not before they managed to shoot her in the arm. Tali saw an elevator leading to Zakera Ward. She dived in and pushed the button for the lower wards. Tali's visor began lighting up with temperature warnings. Her fever was reaching dangerous levels and she needed to get somewhere safe soon.

The elevator door opened and Tali rushed out. She hoped that she had managed to lose her attackers. She didn't think she could escape them again if they found her. As she ran aimlessly through the maze of corridors that made up the lower wards, Tali saw a sign denoting a clinic. Thanking her ancestors for finally supplying some good luck, she banged on the door of the Clinic. The door opened, revealing a red haired human woman. "Please, help me!" Tali croaked, her throat having swollen from allergic reaction. Before the woman could react. Tali's vision faded to black and she collapsed.


	6. Chapter 6

_Author's note: This chapter jumps between perspectives a lot. let me know whether or not you think it works._

* * *

_C-Sec Officer Garrus Vakarian_

Garrus woke to the sound of his omni tool. He activated the display and saw two new messages. The most recent, flagged as urgent, was from Pallin. He opened it.

**_Vakarian,_**

**_Time's up. Meet me in the Citadel Tower to report on your findings at 1000 hours._**

**_Executor Pallin._**

Garrus swore. He was sure that there was something off about Saren but it was 0930 and he didn't have time to dig further. He opened the other message. This one was from Doctor Michel.

**_Garrus,_**

**_A young quarian showed up at my door. She had been shot and was running a dangerously high fever. She was delirious while I was treating her and kept shouting about geth and Eden Prime. If you get a moment, I was hoping you could come talk to her. I think she might be caught up in some serious trouble._**

**_Chloe._**

Garrus hurried to put his armour on. He would need to talk to Pallin first but this quarian could be the break he needed in his investigation.

Garrus arrived at the Citadel Tower at 0955 and saw the Executor waiting for him.

"Sir." Said Garrus, giving Pallin a quick salute.

"Vakarian, what has your investigation turned up?"

"Nothing yet, sir, but…"

"I'll inform the Council then."

"Sir, Saren is up to something. I can feel it. I need more time… Stall them!"

"Stall the council?" asked Pallin, "don't be ridiculous. Your investigation is over, Vakarian. Expect a new assignment tomorrow morning." The Executor turned and walked towards the council chamber. Garrus' shoulders slumped. Pallin was doing him a favour by not reassigning him immediately but a day might not be enough. He turned to leave and saw a group of humans led by one which he recognised from his investigation. Commander Shepard was one of the humans involved in the case against Saren. Garrus decided it would be best to introduce himself to the man.

* * *

_Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams_

When the armoured turian began walking directly towards the Commander, Ashley's fingers twitched towards the empty spot on her hip. She was uneasy about being surrounded by potentially hostile aliens without her weapons and armour. She didn't relax until the turian extended his hand to the Commander. "Commander Shepard, I'm Garrus Vakarian. I was in charge of the C-Sec investigation into Saren." Said the turian, shaking the Commander's hand  
Ashley raised her eyebrow at this. _They sent a turian to investigate Saren? I guess that shows just how impartial we can expect the council to be. _She thought bitterly.  
"What did you find?" asked the Commander.  
Garrus sighed. "Nothing. Everything Saren touches is classified. The council didn't even open his mission reports to C-Sec for the investigation." Ashley didn't know much about turian body language, but Garrus seemed angry about this.  
"But I haven't given up yet. Something about Saren just doesn't seem right." Garrus shook his head. "I've got a lead I'm about to look into. Good luck talking to the council. I don't think you're going to get much out of them." Garrus turned and left.

"Let's go." Said the Commander. "We don't want to be late for our audience with the Council."

By the time they reached the Council chamber, the hearing had already begun. Ashley was only slightly surprised to see a hologram of a turian who she could only assume was Saren. To Ashley, the spectre looked creepy, even for a turian. She thought Saren sounded far too smug to be innocent as he denied the allegations that Anderson and Udina laid out.  
"Humanity needs to learn its place." Growled Saren, cutting off Udina's tirade, "Your kind isn't ready to join the spectres and this pathetic episode proves it!"  
"He has no right to say that!" shouted Udina at the Council, "That's not his decision." The Asari Councillor turned to Saren. "Shepard's admission into the spectres is not the purpose of this meeting." She said.  
_Commander Shepard as a spectre? They do say that spectres are the best of their respective species. The Commander definitely qualifies. _

"This meeting has no purpose." said Saren dismissively. The Councillors stepped back from their podiums and shared a brief conference before stepping back up. "We do not find sufficient evidence of treason to take action against Saren Arterius." Said the Asari Councillor, "Your motion to have him disbarred from the spectres is denied."  
To Ashley, Saren looked even more smug than before. "I'm glad to see that justice has prevailed today" he said. Ashley saw the Commander's hands clench into fists. Clearly he also thought Saren was a bit too smug. "We'll meet again soon, Saren." He said, with an icy calm in his voice, before the hologram blinked out of existence. The Commander turned to face the Councillors, addressing them for the first time. "Councillors, thank you for hearing our case. You can expect to hear from us again soon when we have further evidence." He turned and left the chamber. Ashley fell in with Cass and Kaiden behind him. As soon as they got out of the council chamber, Cass hurried forward and punched the Commander in the shoulder. "A spectre, John?" she asked incredulously, "we were talking for hours and you didn't mention it once." The Commander rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. "I didn't think it was on the table after all that happened so I didn't mention it." Cass let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm not going to forget this, John."

* * *

_Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya_

**_The Shadow Broker is willing to meet. Bring the data to the attached coordinates in two hours. Come alone._**

**_Fist._**

Tali breathed a sigh of relief as she read the message on her omni tool. Fist had initially seemed unwilling to set up a meeting with the Shadow Broker but she had insisted and had eventually gotten a face to face. The Doctor at the clinic had been very kind, patching her up for free and reluctantly directing her towards Fist as the Shadow Broker's local agent. Doctor Michel had tried to convince her to stay, saying that a C-Sec officer was coming to talk to her. Tali hadn't wanted to hang around to be interrogated by C-Sec, so she had thanked the Doctor for her help and left the clinic. Tali started looking around for a place to lie low. She was still afraid that Saren's thugs would find her again before the meeting.

* * *

_Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko_

Kaiden stood and listened as Udina ranted about the ruling, blaming Anderson and even the Commander for the outcome. Finally, it seemed that the Commander had had enough. "If you're done, Ambassador, my team and I should begin our investigation."  
"You should talk to Barla Von in the financial district." Said Anderson, "He's the shadow broker's agent on the presidium…"  
"You mean we, don't you, captain?"  
Anderson shook his head. "I have too much history with Saren. My involvement would undermine our case."  
"If Barla Von doesn't have the evidence we need, he'll at least know who does." said Udina, "I can authorise you to pay whatever is necessary for information on Saren." Kaiden was surprised at the level of discretion that the Commander was being entrusted with but then again, Udina was a political animal and being involved in taking down Saren would be a significant feather in his cap. The Commander saluted Anderson. "I won't let you down, sir." He said before leading the team out of the embassy towards the financial district.

* * *

Barla Von didn't seem particularly surprised when the Commander, Ashley, Cass and Kaiden walked into his office. "Greetings earth clan." He said, "You must be Commander Shepard." The Commander looked down at the diminutive alien. "You're very well informed." he said, "How much does your employer want for information on Saren?"

To Kaiden's surprise, rather than naming a figure, Von took a data pad out of his desk and placed it in front of the Commander. "The Shadow Broker doesn't currently have any evidence linking Saren to the geth attack." He explained, "However, Saren recently turned one of the Broker's agents on the Citadel, as such, the Shadow Broker is less than pleased with Saren. The broker is willing to provide you with what we do have free of charge." The Commander picked up the data pad and began to read. "There is a quarian on the Citadel." Continued Von, "She has been trying to sell information connecting Saren to the geth since before news of the attack went public. Her last known location is a clinic in Zakera Ward, where she received medical treatment after being attacked by mercenaries the Broker believes were working under the orders of Saren." The Commander set down the data pad. "Thank you for the information Von." he said,  
"There is one more thing you should know." said Von before the Commander could turn to leave, "The Shadow Broker believes that the rouge agent is also searching for the Quarian. His name is Fist and the Shadow Broker has hired a krogan bounty hunter named Urdnot Wrex to deal with him. Don't get caught in the middle."

"I'll keep that in mind." said the Commander as the team walked out of office.

"I guess we head to that clinic now." Suggested Cass.

"Not straight away." said the Commander, "first we head back to the Normandy. I don't want to take any chances here, we're going to go into this armed to the teeth. Just in case." Alenko couldn't help but agree. He had no desire to be anywhere near a krogan bounty hunter with nothing but his dress uniform for protection.

* * *

_C-Sec Officer Garrus Vakarian_

As Garrus approached Doctor Michel's clinic, he saw a group of armed men enter with their weapons drawn. Dropping the bag of sealed food tubes he had bought to put the Quarian at ease, Garrus drew his pistol and dived through the door before it closed. He knew from previous visits to the clinic that there was a half wall running most of the length of the room which would keep him out of sight of anyone in the main portion of the clinic if he stayed low. He came up from his dive into a crouch near the edge of the half wall, listening and waiting for his chance.

"Who are you?" screamed Michel. Hearing the terror in her voice, it was all Garrus could do to resist the urge to shoot the thugs then and there. Michel was a talented doctor and had patched Garrus up one night after a shootout with drug dealers in a nearby warehouse. After that, he had kept an eye on the doctor, who seemed to have a gift for getting mixed up in trouble through no fault of her own. Garrus knew that if he moved now there was a good chance that the Doctor would get hurt, so he gritted his teeth and waited.

"Fist needs to know who you told about the Quarian, Doctor." Said one of the thugs.

"I didn't tell anyone, I swear." cried Michel.

The door opened and Garrus saw none other than Commander Shepard and his team enter the in full armour. Without any hesitation, all five of them drew their sidearms, bringing them to the ready as Garrus heard the thugs begin to react. Doctor Michel screamed and Garrus decided that it was time to move. He rounded the edge of the half wall and took a fraction of a second to survey the situation. There was four armed humans, all of them focused on Shepard and his squad. Garrus' visor showed that none of the thugs had kinetic barriers. One of the Thugs had his gun to the Doctor's head, keeping her between him and the door. Garrus took aim at his temple and fired. The human crumpled to the floor less than a second after Garrus stood up. The other thugs turned to face Garrus but joined their leader on the ground when Commander Shepard and his squad opened fire. Garrus turned to face the squad, holstering his pistol. "Excellent timing." he said, "you gave me a clear shot at that moron." Shepard walked forward, his gun still in his hand but pointing toward the floor. When he finally stopped, his face was inches away from Garrus'. "What the _hell _were you thinking? You could have hit the hostage." Garrus' first reaction was indignation at the idea that he could miss such an easy shot but Shepard was right. He had put Doctor Michel in danger. "There… There was no time to think. I just reacted." Garrus turned to the doctor. "Doctor Michel, are you all right?"  
Michel looked shaken but nodded. "I'll be okay, Garrus." During the brief exchange, Shepard seemed to relax, holstering his pistol. "Doctor, I know you're scared but we can protect you. We need to know where the Quarian went."

"I tried to tell her to wait for Garrus to arrive. He's helped me out of trouble in the past and I thought he could help her too but she said that C-Sec couldn't help her and that she had to trade her information for protection." Michel stopped for a moment to catch her breath. "She insisted so I gave her Fist's contact information. He's an agent for the Shadow Broker."

"Not anymore." said Shepard, "He works for Saren now."  
Garrus was stunned, "Fist betrayed the Shadow Broker? That's stupid even for him."  
Shepard turned to face Garrus. "Where can I find Fist?" he asked, "I think it's time I paid him a visit."  
"He spends most of his time at Chora's Den. He owns the place. It's not far from here."  
"John," said the smaller of the two armoured women behind the Commander. "I think we should find that krogan the Volus mentioned. Urdnot Wrex, I think his name was. We should at least make sure he's not planning to make his move in the next couple of hours." Shepard nodded. "Good idea, I've tangled with krogan before. It's something you should avoid if possible, Cass."  
"I know who you're talking about. I saw him being interviewed at C-Sec academy when I came through earlier this morning. He's probably still there." said Garrus. Making a snap decision, he took a step forward. "Shepard…"

"Yes?" answered Shepard and the small woman simultaneously. Garrus looked between them, confused, before continuing, "Let me join you. Saren was my investigation and I want to see it through to the end." Shepard looked at him for a moment before replying, "You can join us on one condition. Don't put any more civilians in unnecessary danger." Garrus nodded. "Then welcome aboard, Vakarian. This is Alenko, Williams and Shepard." He said, gesturing to each of his companions in turn. "As you just saw. Things can get a little mixed up between my sister and I so call me Commander and call her Shepard." Garrus nodded, fixing all the names in his mind.  
"Let's go then." said the Commander, "we need to hurry."

* * *

_Urdnot Wrex_

Wrex was getting tired of the C-Sec officer in front of him. The turian had been yapping at him for the past half hour. Wrex decided a little intimidation was in order. He growled and the turian took a step back. "Do you want me to arrest you, krogan?" the turian blustered.  
Wrex laughed. "I want you to _try_." He said. Behind the officer, he saw a group of humans standing with another turian C-Sec officer, watching him. Deciding that the group looked more interesting than the officer was, Wrex pushed past and approached the large human who looked like the leader. "Do I know you, human?" He growled. Wrex had learned years ago that an alien's initial reaction to krogan intimidation revealed a lot about them. This human stood his ground. "I'm Commander Shepard." he said, "I hear you're going after Fist." Wrex placed his hand on the shotgun on the small of his back. "You're not going to stop me." he said. The human raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture.  
"I'm not here to stop you. I want to help you."  
Wrex narrowed his eyes. "I'm not sharing the bounty."  
"We don't want the bounty." he said calmly, still not backing down, "We just need to question Fist."  
Wrex decided that he liked this human. "Well then, what are we waiting for?" he said, "Let's go."


	7. Chapter 7

_C-Sec Officer Garrus Vakarian_

As they approached the door to Chora's Den, Garrus could tell that something was wrong. It took him a moment to realise what it was. "Commander, we should be able to hear the music from the club from here."  
"Good." said the Commander, "Hopefully that means they've cleared out the bystanders." The Commander motioned for the rest of the group to stay clear of the door and opened it. He leaned around to peer into the room and hurriedly pulled his head back as the sound of gunfire erupted from inside the club. "Not the most welcoming of places." remarked the Commander with a smirk. He pulled several disk shaped explosives from a compartment on his armour and thumbed the activation buttons. The Commander tossed them into the club and slammed his fist onto the door control. The door slid closed and a moment later a series of muffled booms reverberated through the corridor. When the explosions stopped, the Commander opened the door again. Wrex began to move towards the door but the Commander waved him off. "Not just yet." He said before tossing another grenade through the door. This one detonated with a brief flash and a series of startled exclamations. "Go." Said the Commander before stepping quickly into the club. Wrex followed immediately behind him, already firing at the club's stunned defenders. Garrus stepped through the door and looked around for any hostiles. A turian emerged from behind the bar in the centre of the room, a shotgun in his hands. Garrus dropped him before he could get a shot off.

By the time the last member of Commander Shepard's squad came through the door, the club's main room was clear. "I was hoping for more of a fight" grumbled Wrex.  
"Fist should be though there." said Garrus, gesturing towards the charred door at the back of the club. The Commander took point as they went through the door into the narrow corridor behind it. There were two more armed humans in the corridor, their pistols wavering as their hands shook. "Stay back!" one of them shouted, sounding absolutely terrified. Garrus could tell that these weren't mercenaries or local thugs. The Commander put his gun away. "I think it's time for you two to find somewhere else to work." The second human dropped his gun, looking relieved. "You don't have to tell me twice." he said, walking towards the exit. "I never liked Fist anyway." said the first, following suit. "Why'd you let them live?" asked Wrex, sounding curious rather than angry.  
"They didn't try to shoot us." Replied the Commander, "That sort of behaviour should be encouraged."  
Wrex laughed. "I guess so, human." he said.

They entered Fist's office and found him crouching behind his desk. The rogue agent began firing blindly over his head but the team's barriers took the wild shots without much trouble. At a hand signal from the Commander, Alenko began to glow blue with biotic power. His hand lashed out and the desk floated into the air, leaving Fist exposed. The Commander also lit up, sending the rogue agent crashing into the back wall.  
Fist stood, clutching his arm. His gun lay on the floor next to him. "I give up. Please don't kill me."  
"Where's the Quarian?" demanded the Commander.  
Fist cringed. "I don't know!"  
The Commander turned to Wrex. "I guess he's no use to us." he said calmly, "go ahead." Wrex stepped forward, raising his shotgun.  
"Wait!" shouted Fist, "I told her that I'd set up a meeting with the Shadow Broker. But when she gets there, it'll be Saren's men waiting for her. It's due to go down any minute."  
"Where?" asked the Commander.  
"The alleyway next to the presidium access elevator."  
The Commander turned towards Garrus. "Vakarian, do you know where he means?"  
Garrus nodded. "It's not far from here."  
"Lead the way." Said the Commander, "We might already be too late."  
Garrus led the way out of the office at a run. Behind them he heard the report of a large shotgun. _I guess I should have expected that Wrex would fulfil his contract._

* * *

_Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya_

Tali was beginning to think that she had made a huge mistake in coming to the meeting. When she arrived at the alleyway, a group of five armoured mercenaries had been waiting for her. "Where's the Shadow Broker?" she asked suspiciously, "Where's Fist?" One of the Turian mercenaries laughed unpleasantly. "They'll be here." He said, "But first, did you show the data to anyone? Did you make a copy?" Tali shook her head. "good." Said the turian, putting his hand on the pistol at his hip, "That makes things much simpler." _They're going to kill me now. _She thought, _I'll never see the fleet or my father again. _She pulled a small device out of one of her suit's many pockets. She wasn't going to go down without a fight. She rolled it into the midst of the mercenaries. The device was something of Tali's own design. When it detonated, the mercenaries' weapons began blaring overheat warnings. As Tali ran for the exit, she was shocked to hear the sound of weapons fire. She tensed, expecting to feel an impact between her shoulders but it didn't happen, instead a clawed hand wrapped around her arm. Tali turned to see the Turian mercenary drawing a wicked looking knife from a sheath on his arm. "Time to die suit rat." he growled, raising the knife, "Saren sends his..." The turian was thrown to the ground as a large, blue tinged blur hit him from the side. Tali watched as the turian slid to a halt with a large armoured human pinning him to the ground. The gunfire stopped and the human got up and walked towards her. She took a step back, worried that this human might want to hurt her as well. "Are you hurt?" he asked.  
_Maybe he's not going to hurt me. I hope not, I didn't realise humans could be that big.  
_"Can you understand me?" asked the human,  
Tali realised that she still hadn't answered and hurried to nod.  
"My name is Commander John Shepard." he said, "I'm going to get you somewhere safe."  
"Th- thank you." Tali managed.  
"She speaks!" the man exclaimed, "Will you tell me your name now?"  
"My name is Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya" she said with growing confidence now that she was reasonably sure that this strange human wasn't going to kill her.  
"Well, Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya, meet Lieutenant Kaiden Alenko, Lieutenant Cassandra Shepard, Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, Officer Garrus Vakarian and Urdnot Wrex." He said, gesturing to each of his companions in turn. "Now, I understand you have information about Saren that you're trying to sell."  
"Yes, I do." replied Tali.  
He smiled. "Then on behalf of the Human Systems Alliance, I'd like to make an offer. We can discuss terms at the human embassy."

* * *

Much to Tali's relief, they reached the embassy without incident. Wrex bade the group goodbye at the door, saying that he had to collect the bounty on Fist and that he might see them around. Tali entered the embassy to find a grey haired human shouting at the Commander. "… Firefights in the wards? An all out assault on Chora's Den? You'd better have a good explanation for this Shepard." The Ambassador paused, apparently noticing Tali for the first time. "What's this? A quarian? What are you up to here Shepard?" he asked. Tali's hands clenched into fists. She had put up with a lot of suspicion and mistreatment since leaving the fleet but it never failed to infuriate her.  
"Her name is Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya" replied the Commander calmly, "she has information connecting Saren to the geth." He turned to face Tali "Tali'Zorah, this is Ambassador Udina."  
Udina's demeanour changed immediately. "Well then, Miss Zorah was it? Why don't you show us what you found?"  
Tali activated her omni tool and played the audio file. "Eden Prime was a major victory. The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the conduit." The voice was that of a male turian. Another voice played through Tali's omni tool. "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." The room was silent for a moment.  
"How did you get that?" asked Udina, sounding suspicious.  
"I recovered it from a geth memory core" replied Tali, trying to stay calm. "I was investigating rumours of geth activity in the Crescent Nebula. I thought that if I could get an intact geth memory core for study, it would make a good pilgrimage gift but when I finally found a lone geth, the only data that I could recover before it flashed its core was that audio file and some related bits of data."  
"Are we certain that the voice on the recording was Saren?" Asked a dark skinned human in a military dress uniform.  
"The geth unit had the speaker tagged as Saren-Spectre, if that helps" offered Tali timidly.  
The dark skinned human nodded. "That will do."  
Udina turned to the terminal at his desk and began typing. A few moments later, he turned around. "We have a meeting with the Council in ten minutes. I want you and your team to be there Shepard."  
"The Commander nodded and turned to Tali. "Would you like to come along, Tali'Zorah? You'll get to watch three of the most influential people in the Galaxy scramble to cover their asses, knowing that it was your data that made it happen."  
Tali hesitated. On the one hand she wanted to get her reward and go while on the other hand she'd be safe with this group of soldiers from anyone who might still be after her.  
"Sounds like fun, Commander." said Tali, smiling behind her mask.

* * *

"Where do you think you're going, Quarian?" demanded the turian C-Sec officer outside the council chambers, "Get out of here before I lock you up." Tali's shoulders slumped. She turned to leave but stopped when the Commander stepped between her and the officer. "Tali'Zorah is a part of our investigation." said the Commander, "She's coming in with us." The turian bristled, placing his hand on his gun but the Commander stood his ground.  
"Maybe I should just arrest you both." Growled the C-Sec officer.  
"Don't try it, Nitidus," said Garrus from the back of the group, "we both know that neither of them have committed a crime and if you try to arrest Commander Shepard here, the best outcome you can hope for is that he goes quietly and you cause a diplomatic incident."  
Nitidus muttered something that Tali's translator didn't pick up and waved them through.  
"Sorry about him." said Garrus to Tali, "They put inexperienced officers in that posting where they won't get themselves killed."  
Tali was feeling more than a little overwhelmed. These aliens had met her less than an hour ago and already they were willing to stand up for her in a way that no one else had since she went out on her pilgrimage.

The hearing was already underway when Tali and the rest of the Commander's group walked into the council chambers. Udina was already playing the recording. By the time it finished, all three of the Councillors were shifting uncomfortably behind their podiums.  
"You wanted proof?" asked Udina, "There it is."  
Eventually the Asari Councillor spoke. "In light of this new evidence, Saren Arterius is hereby stripped of his spectre status. All efforts will be made to apprehend him."  
"That's not enough!" shouted Udina, "Saren is hiding in the Traverse. Send in the Fleet."  
We will not risk war with the Terminus Systems by sending a fleet to their borders." said the Turian Councillor.  
"Then don't." said the Commander, "Send me after Saren. You don't have to commit a fleet and humanity gets its spectre." The Councillors stepped back to hold a brief conference. After a moment, they returned to their podiums. "John Shepard, Step Forward."


	8. Chapter 8

_Author's note: I'm sorry to say that there may not be a new chapter next week. I've had two big assignments dropped on my head. Hopefully I'll be back on track with a new chapter by september 4th._

* * *

_Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya _

"Wrap up any business you have on the Citadel, Commander, I'll send you a message when I have things sorted." The Ambassador turned to the dark skinned human, who Tali had learned was a Captain, "Come along Anderson, I'll need your help to get everything organised. He'll need a ship and a crew…" The two older humans left, Anderson clapping the Commander on the shoulder on the way past.  
After a moment, the human who had been introduced as Cassandra threw her arms around the Commander. "Congratulations!" she shouted exuberantly, before pulling away and reaching up to punch him in the shoulder. "But I still haven't forgiven you for not telling me." The Commander made a show of rubbing his arm, grinning while Cassandra calmed down.  
The Commander turned to face Tali. "I haven't forgotten the reward I promised you." he said, "What would you like?" Tali already knew the answer. She had made up her mind when the Commander had been tasked with hunting down Saren. "About your mission, you're going to encounter geth, right?" she asked.  
The Commander nodded. "They're working for Saren so that's a safe bet."  
Tali took a deep breath, mustering her courage. "Then take me with you. Let me help you fight them." The Commander frowned. "Are you sure that's what you want?"  
Tai nodded. "The pilgrimage is meant to prove that we can work for the greater good. What would it say about me if I walked away from this?"  
_Please, ancestors, let him say yes.  
_The Commander smiled and extended his hand. "Welcome aboard, Tali'Zorah."

* * *

_Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams_

The Commander turned to face Ashley and Kaiden. "Williams, Alenko, I don't know how things are going to play out from here on" he said, "but I'd like to have you both transferred from the Normandy onto whatever ship I'm assigned." He paused. "However, this mission is likely to be much more dangerous than your average assignment. I'll understand perfectly if either of you want to stay on the Normandy. I'm not going to take anyone with me who isn't a volunteer."  
_Well, this one's a no brainer._  
"Count me in, sir." Said Ashley, without hesitation.  
"Same here." Said Kaiden, a moment later.  
"Thank you both." He said simply before turning to face the Turian.  
"Vakarian, it's been a pleasure working with you." He said, shaking the officer's hand.  
"Ah, Commander," he said, "If you're taking volunteers, I'd like to put my name forward. Saren's a disgrace to turians everywhere and needs to be taken down. I'm sure that with your new spectre status it should be a simple matter to have me transferred to your command."  
"Having an investigator around might come in handy." said the Commander.  
"I was also a Blackwatch sniper in my military days." Replied Vakarian.  
"I'll make the call then." Said Shepard, "Welcome aboard, Vakarian."  
_Great, another alien, next thing you know, that krogan will be showing up wanting to join up too._  
The sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the antechamber. "Commander Shepard!" came a familiar rumbling voice. "Word is, you're going after Saren. Count me in."  
_You really need to stop jinxing things, Williams._

"Okay people grab any personal effects you might need and meet back here." said Shepard.  
Ashley headed for the wards market. She had arrived on the Normandy with nothing but her armour and weapons. She needed some essentials. Behind her, Ashley heard the Commander talking with Tali'Zorah and Cass, who had stayed behind, about visiting the executor's office.

Ashley returned to find that she was the last one back. "The Ambassador is ready for us." said Shepard, "He's waiting at the Normandy's dock."

* * *

With so many in the group, the elevator to the dock wasn't quite big enough to fit everyone. The Commander waved everyone else in first but caught Cass by the shoulder. "You and I are taking the next one." Ashley hit the button and the elevator began its slow decent to the docks.  
"What do you think that was about?" Ashley asked. To her surprise, it wasn't Kaiden, who had known the Commander the longest, who answered. "Obviously the Commander wanted to talk with her in private." answered Garrus, "If I had to guess he's telling her that she isn't coming with us and he's doing it in private to avoid embarrassing her." The turian's level of insight was surprising and made a lot of sense to Ashley in her experience as an older sibling.

The elevator reached the dock and everyone stepped out. Ashley nearly laughed at the wild look in Udina's eyes as he saw Tali, Wrex and Garrus.  
"The Commander and Shepard will be here in a minute." Said Kaiden. "There wasn't quite enough space for everyone."  
There was a long period of awkward silence as the elevator made its way back up and down. Eventually Cass and the Commander stepped out. Udina looked relieved. "Shepard, The Normandy and her crew are being put under your command. We've also set up an account with mission funds. It should be sufficient to keep you supplied for as long as necessary"  
The Commander looked as if he was going to object but Anderson stepped forward. "The Normandy's the perfect ship for a spectre. She fast, quiet and you already know the crew." he said.  
"I'll do you proud, sir." Said the Commander, shaking the captain's hand. He turned to his team. "Okay, if all goes well we'll be leaving in about four hours. Vakarian, Zorah, I want you two to talk to Sergeant Postle. He's the Normandy's requisition officer. You'll find him in the cargo bay. Let him know what the two of you will need in the way of food." The Commander's omni tool beeped. After a moment's reading, he turned to Kaiden. "Alenko, can you give everyone a quick tour. We may have just gotten our first lead. From the asari councillor of all people."  
The Commander walked back off the dock with Cass beside him while Kaiden led the way into the Normandy's airlock.

* * *

_Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya_

The Commander's ship was absolutely breath-taking. After being shown around and talking to the requisition officer, Tali found herself drawn to the engine room. The Drive core seemed much larger than normal for a ship the size of the Normandy. She stood at the safety railing, tracing the path of the various power conduits to their sources.  
"It's beautiful isn't it?" Tali jumped at the unfamiliar voice behind her and turned around to find a human male standing behind her. "Sorry to startle you." said the human, "I'm Chief Engineer Adams."

"Pleased to meet you, sir. I'm Tali." She replied.  
"So what brings you down here?"  
"Habit, I guess. I've been helping in engineering since I was old enough to tighten a bolt."  
Adams smiled. "Ah, a fellow grease monkey. So how does this compare to other ships you've worked on?" He asked gesturing towards the drive core  
"It's absolutely amazing" said Tali emphatically, "I just can't figure out why a ship as small as this one needs such a large drive core."  
Adams chuckled. "Well," he said, "It has to do with the stealth systems…"  
Tali listened, fascinated as Adams began explaining the Normandy's stealth capabilities. She had a feeling that she was going to enjoy her time here.

* * *

_Commander John Shepard_

John walked into the Asari Councillor's office with Cass beside him.  
"Commander Shepard," said the Councillor, "I believe I have a lead for you. I recognised the voice in your recording as Matriarch Benezia."  
"Do you know where she is at the moment?" asked John.  
The Councillor shook her head. "I'm afraid not, however, Benezia has a daughter. Liara T'Soni. She's an archaeologist specialising in Prothean culture. She's working on a dig somewhere in the Artemis Tau cluster. She may know where Benezia is or even be involved herself, given Saren's involvement with the beacon." John nodded. It was a tenuous lead but it was all he had to go on. "Thank you, Councillor. You were right to bring this to my attention." He turned and left the office.

"How long until your shuttle leaves, Cass?" he asked his sister.  
"Just over an hour."  
"Come on then, I'll buy you dinner before you go, you're not going to get a cooked meal at N school."  
Cass looked at him suspiciously. "What are we going to be doing?"  
John smiled. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you."  
Cass laughed and punched him in the arm again.


	9. Chapter 9

_Author's note: my humblest apologies to everyone for the longer than planned hiatus. my laptop's keyboard died just I got started on this chapter and by the time it came back from being repaired, I was into the next lot of assignments._

* * *

_Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya_

"Officer on deck!"

Tali jumped as, in response to Adams' shout, the engineering team turned towards the door, standing at attention. Tali turned to see the Commander standing at the door, looking quite embarrassed. "At ease everyone." He said, "And Adams, please don't do that again. You know I'm not one for formalities."  
Tali turned back to her terminal as Adams and the Commander began talking quietly.

"So, Tali, how are you settling in?"  
Tali jumped at the sound of the voice behind her. She had been so immersed in the schematics she was looking over that she had completely forgot that the Commander was in engineering.  
"This ship is amazing!" she gushed, "If this is what all human ships are like, it's no wonder you're expanding so fast."  
The Commander laughed. "The Normandy's a prototype. State of the art. Now, I hear that you've been practically living in engineering since you came aboard."  
_Oh no! Have I done something wrong? Am I not supposed to be down here?  
_The Commander seemed to notice the change in Tali's body language. "It's okay. You haven't done anything wrong."  
Tali relaxed. "So… I can stay in engineering? In between ground missions I mean."  
The kind smile disappeared from the Commander's face. He sighed. "Tali, I wanted to talk to about that. Are you sure that it's what you want?"  
"Yes, Commander. My people created the geth. No matter how much we've suffered because of it, they're our responsibility. I owe it to my people to do whatever I can to stop the geth from hurting anyone else." Tali stopped, surprised by her own eloquence.  
"I'll make you a deal then, Tali." said the Commander, "I'll train you until I'm satisfied that you're not going to get yourself killed. If you still feel the same way afterwards then you can be part of the ground team."  
Tali nodded eagerly "thank you, Commander. I won't let you down"  
"Don't thank me yet." said the Commander "Meet me in the cargo bay at the beginning of second shift and we'll put you through your paces." 

* * *

When the Commander had said he would 'put her through her paces', Tali hadn't realised just how literal he was being. She had shown up at the appointed time to be greeted by an incredibly cheerful Commander Shepard who had immediately told her to start running. It was half an hour before he finally called her over to the armoury and dropped a pistol into her hands. "This is loaded with practice rounds, however, I expect you to treat it as though it wasn't." he gestured towards a target that had been set up at the far end of the cargo bay. "Now, let's see how you go at ten metres." Still trying to catch her breath, Tali squared up on the target, making sure to keep the gun pointed at the ground at all times. She had been taught how to shoot before she went out on her pilgrimage and was relatively good at it. She sighted and fired six shots, leaving six spots of fine blue chalk on the target. None of them had hit the bulls-eye, in fact, only one had hit inside the inner ring. Tali's shoulders sagged. It was a terrible spread and she knew it.

"Okay, that's about what I expected." said the Commander, "your technique isn't bad, but there are a few points where you can improve." The Commander made a few minor corrections to her stance and her next set was better but before he let Tali fire a third set, he sent her on another few laps of the cargo hold.

* * *

_Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko_

As Shepard slowly manoeuvred the mako into position in front of the cargo bay doors Kaidan double checked the straps of his safety harness. Behind him, in the gunner's seat, Garrus looked unconcerned by what was about to happen or at least Kaidan thought he did. The Turian's facial expressions were so alien that he just couldn't tell. Wrex, who was sitting at the back of the mako, looked even less worried although Kaidan did note that he had fitted two of the human sized safety harnesses together so that they reached around him. Kaidan had been on plenty of mako drops with Shepard in the year they'd served together and as such he knew what was coming. The cargo bay door opened and Joker's voice came over the tank's intercom. "Ground team, you are clear for drop in three, two, one", Kaidan clutched the armrest of the seat. "Mark!" Shepard gunned the engine, hurtling them off the ramp towards the surface of Edolus. As always, Shepard waited until the last possible moment to activate the thrusters, making the impact with the ground merely jarring rather than fatal.

"Kaidan, do we still have a lock on that distress signal?" asked the Commander.  
"We're still getting it. Its 10 clicks northeast." Shepard grinned and gunned the engine, sending the mako surging forward over the uneven terrain.

Under the Commander's skilled but terrifying guidance, the mako soon reached the source of the signal to find the area littered with dead Alliance marines. They climbed out of the mako to investigate. Kaidan checked the dog tags of the nearest few corpses. "Commander, it looks like they were from recon division. I'm not sure what killed them though. The wounds don't look like they were…" Kaidan stopped as the ground started to rumble. Wrex's head jerked up from the marine he was inspecting. "Everyone back in the tank!" he roared, "Now!" Spurred on by the urgency in Wrex's voice, Kaidan sprinted at Wrex's heels towards the mako's access hatch, closely followed by Garrus and Shepard. "Drive!" shouted Wrex as Shepard settled himself in the driver's seat, "or we'll end up like that other lot." The reason for Wrex's urgency became clear as an enormous worm like creature erupted out of the ground in the spot that the mako had occupied only seconds ago. It was a thresher maw. "Open fire Garrus, give it everything you've got." ordered Shepard. Immediately, the mako shook as Garrus fired the main cannon. "Kaidan, keep an eye on the rear cameras. Tell me if that thing moves." 

* * *

_Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams  
_

Ashley wasn't happy. Not only had she been left behind while the others investigated a distress beacon planet side, but she'd been left to oversee the quarian's training session while the Commander was gone. She noticed that said quarian was beginning to lag behind the brutal pace that Ashley had set. "Pick up the pace, bucket-head!" She shouted. Intellectually, she knew that it was wrong to take out her frustration on Tali, but the Commander _had _said to push her to her limits. To her surprise, the quarian did manage to speed up again, despite the fact that she was obviously near exhaustion. _The suit rat has grit at least.  
_After five more minutes, Ashley called the quarian over. "Okay, bucket-head." she said, handing Tali a practice pistol, "go stand at the thirty metre mark and show me what you've got." Ashley had seen the quarian's first attempt from ten metres several days prior and so was surprised when she put three of six shots into the bullseye. Of the other three, two had hit inside the inner ring. Ashley had known alliance marines who would be hard pressed to match a spread like that with a pistol at thirty metres. Clearly Tali was a fast learner and the Commander a good teacher.  
"Not bad bucket head." Said Ashley somewhat grudgingly.  
"I could have done better if you'd let me catch my breath first!" snapped Tali.  
"Do you think the geth will wait for you to catch your breath?" Ashley shouted back, "You don't go into combat completely calm and rested. You have to learn to compensate for that."  
"W-wait, what?" stammered Tali, "That's what all the running is about?"  
"That and to make sure you're fit enough to keep up." said Ashley, "Now, the Commander said that he wanted you to begin training with a shotgun today…"

* * *

_Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko  
_

Kaidan breathed a sigh of relief as the thresher maw finally fell to the ground. Behind him, Wrex let out an ear shattering roar of triumph.  
"That beacon was a standard ship board distress beacon." Stated Shepard, "Those marines were traveling in a grizzly. There's no way they brought it with them."  
"You think it was a trap?" asked Garrus, "someone planted it on that maw feeding ground as bait?"  
"Exactly." said Shepard grimly, once again parking the mako next to the distress signal. "Alenko, see what you can find out about the distress beacon." ordered Shepard. "Make sure that it's disabled before we leave. Garrus, Wrex, help me collect dog tags and omni tools from the marines.

After a couple of hours the mako was back in its spot in the Normandy's cargo hold. Kaidan had collected serial numbers for most of the beacon's components, but hadn't found anything suspicious. The mission debrief was short. Kaidan could tell that Shepard was troubled by signs that someone had gone to so much trouble to set a trap for alliance marines.

* * *

_Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams_

Ashley had caught Kaiden on his way to the Normandy's showers and got a quick rundown of what happened on Edolus. She was seething by the time he finished.  
_Whoever set that trap is going to pay. Even if I have to hunt them down myself.  
_Ashley headed to the armoury to work on the special forces rifle the Commander had given her. It was something she found herself doing often since they had left the Citadel.

After a few minutes she heard footsteps behind her. It was the Commander.  
"How'd the training session go today, Williams?" he asked.  
"Better than I expected, skipper," she replied, "She's a fast learner. I'll give her that." Ashley stopped, appalled by how informally she had just addressed a man who was not only her commanding officer but a war hero to boot.  
"What's your assessment of her combat readiness?" asked the Commander, seemingly unconcerned by Ashley's breach of protocol. Ashley thought about it for a moment before replying. "Her marksmanship is at a respectable level. She picked up using a shotgun pretty quickly, but then again, once you learn how to hold one properly there's not all that much to it. But I definitely wouldn't put her in the field yet. I don't think she'll respond to orders quickly enough and I think some hand to hand training wouldn't go amiss. "  
Shepard smiled. "I agree totally, Chief, and I was hoping that you could give me a hand with the next part of her training."  
Ashley got the impression that this was a request and not an order but agreed anyway. She still wasn't convinced that the quarian was worth the time. But the Commander was and she would follow his lead.


	10. Chapter 10

_Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya_

During the two weeks that the Normandy spent searching the Artemis Tau cluster, Tali found herself pushed to breaking point time and time again. A few days after the mission on Edolus, the Commander pronounced her marksmanship to be satisfactory. The next part of Tali's training was to practice taking orders without hesitation. To her surprise, the Commander cut back their regular training sessions. Tali hoped that this would mean that the hardest part of her training was over. As she found out that evening, she couldn't have been more wrong.

Tali was sitting at the mess table, eating the bland nutrient paste that was the staple for quarians everywhere. Suddenly the Commander came thundering into the mess hall. "Zorah! Get down!" he shouted. Unsure what was happening, Tali stood up. Suddenly, Chief Williams, who had been sitting at the far end of the mess table eating her own meal, fired four shots at Tali with a pistol that had appeared in her hand as if by magic. Caught completely off guard by the sudden turn of events, Tali ran her hands over her chest where she had felt the rounds impact. Her hand came away covered in fine blue chalk. "You're dead, Zorah!" shouted the Commander, "That's not good enough. When your Commanding officer tells you to get down, you get the hell down!" Tali felt tears begin to well up in her eyes and for once was grateful for the visor which hid her face. "Now head down to the cargo hold and give me twenty laps."

* * *

Over the next week, Tali was 'killed' dozens more times. The whole crew seemed to be in on it and, at the Commander's shouted Command, every one of them had pulled out that hateful practice pistol at some point. Every time she ended up 'dead', the Commander would yell at her and send her to run laps of the cargo hold. Her only refuge was in engineering. She figured that the Commander didn't want to risk damaging any of the vital equipment. The low point came one evening after being ambushed for the third time that day. This time by one of the bridge crew on her way out of the elevator. She was running her laps of the cargo hold, exhausted and barely maintaining the required pace, when the Commander shouted from behind her in a voice that Tali had come to dread. "Zorah, get over here! Now!" acting on what was beginning to become instinct, Tali dived to the ground, realising too late that the Commander had wanted her to turn around. Before she reached it, however, she was hit side on by a massive force. She tumbled sideways, leaving a trail of blue chalk on the ground behind her. When she came to a halt, it was facing the direction the shot had come from and there, crouching next to the nose of the mako was Williams with a shotgun in her hand. If she had turned around when that Commander had told her to, she wouldn't have crossed Williams' line of sight. "You're dead, Zorah!" Shouted the Commander. It was a phrase she was beginning to hear even in her sleep. "If I have to ship your dead body back to the migrant fleet, I'm going to be unbelievably pissed off."  
It was finally too much for Tali. She stayed on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.  
"Come on, Tali," said the Commander quietly. It was the voice of the Commander who had rescued her on the Citadel and taught her to shoot, rather than the monster who had been shouting at her all week. "I think it's time you got some rest." She opened her eyes to see the Commander standing over her, offering his hand. She took it and he pulled her up. He led her to the armoury where he helped her to brush the chalk off her suit before sending her off to her sleeping pod.

* * *

_Commander John Shepard_

John sat down heavily at his desk. Being the ruthless drill sergeant took a lot out of him and it was starting to take its toll. He hated what he was doing to Tali. It was unfair and he knew it but until tonight, she had taken everything in her stride. John felt more than a little guilty about the trick he had played on her. She had reacted instantly to his order, even if it was in the wrong way, and he had seen her struggle to regain her footing only a moment later as she realised her mistake. He hoped that the worst was over at this point and that they could move on to less unpleasant lessons next week. John turned on the terminal at his desk and began to catch up on his correspondence. There was nothing official. His report on the Edolus situation had already been sent to the fifth fleet as well as the Admiral in charge of recon division. Instead he wrote a brief letter to his mother and to Cass, who wouldn't get hers until she finished her training exercise. He also politely declined an invitation to attend the premier of a movie based on the Skyllian blitz.

After half an hour of writing John shut down the terminal and got into bed. Having a bed was still a novel experience. He had spent most of his life living on ships and sleeping in pods. As he forced his body to relax the images from the prothean beacon began to run through his mind, as they had every night since Eden Prime. With each day the Images became a little bit clearer and as they did they became even more disturbing. Underlying it all, worse than the gruesome glimpses of slaughter on an unimaginable scale, was the most profound sense of despair. John was a soldier. He'd seen plenty of atrocities in his time, but the despair was keeping him up at night.

* * *

_Lieutenant Cassandra Shepard_

Cass double checked the seals on her hard-suit and its connections to the parachute. Before take-off the instructors had said that this was going to be a routine low orbit parachute drop into a field near the N school site. Now, five minutes before she was due to jump, she had been sent a data packet containing her real mission.

**_Your mission is to make your way from the drop zone to the extraction point. (Coordinates for both are attached.)_**

**_This is a hostile drop simulation. As such the following rules apply:_**

**_Parachutes must not be opened above an altitude of 4,000 metres. Failure to comply will cause your locator beacon to activate and result in your failure of the exercise._**

**_Landing must be within a 500 metre radius of the given coordinates. Failure to comply will activate your locator beacon and result in failure of the exercise._**

**_Deadly force is not authorised. Failure to comply is grounds for court marshal and imprisonment._**

Cass's eyebrow quirked at the last rule. It suggested that there would be resistance. Before she could consider it further, the warning light came on next to the exit hatch as the atmosphere slowly drained from the passenger compartment. A moment later the hatch opened and the jump light turned green. Cass leapt from the shuttle. Far below, the islands of New Zealand and the South Pacific stretched out in front of her. With a gesture, she lit up the landing co-ordinates on her HUD. Suddenly the reason for the high opening altitude became clear. The drop zone was in the midst of the snowy peaks running the length of the largest island. Cass shifted slightly to adjust her trajectory and waited, enjoying the feeling of being in freefall.

* * *

_Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya_

Things were starting to look up for Tali. The day after the disaster in the cargo bay, Adams had sent her to fix a minor issue in the cockpit. Figuring that the entire thing was probably a trap, Tali made her way carefully through the ship, ready to dive for cover at a moment's notice. She made it to the CIC without incident. The Commander was standing at his terminal next to the galaxy map, not seeming to take any notice as Tali walked past. She had made it most of the way to the cockpit when the trap was finally sprung. "Zorah, take cover!" shouted the Commander. Tali reacted instantly and instinctively, diving under the CIC's main console. She stayed there for about thirty seconds, unsure of what to do next. She hadn't gotten this far before. "You can get up now, Zorah." said the Commander. Tali crawled out from under the console and looked around. On the opposite side of the console, the navigator stood with the practice pistol in his hand, looking slightly embarrassed. Everything was quiet for a moment, before the Commander spoke up. "Better luck next time, Pressley. You should know by now that I only bet on certainties." He turned to face Tali. "Well done, Zorah. Now, as it turns out, there really is a short in the cockpit intercom." Taking the hint, Tali picked up her forgotten tool box, grateful that it hadn't spilt when she dropped it, and headed for the cockpit. On the way every crew member offered her a smile or a pat on the back. It was a nice feeling to see that they liked her enough to want her to succeed. The problem in the cockpit was easy enough to fix and Tali enjoyed listening to the pilot's wisecracks. Later that day, Tali was ambushed in the cargo bay by Lieutenant Alenko and the Commander yelled at her for getting 'killed' again but it didn't matter as much to Tali as it did before. She could do this.

* * *

The next week passed quickly. The Commander took Garrus, Wrex and Williams to investigate an anomalous reading on another planet which turned out to be an ancient Turian exploration drone. As time passed Tali managed to avoid the crew's 'ambushes' more and more often, until the Commander changed things again. "It's time you learned clock positions." he had said at the beginning of one of Tali's daily training sessions. "This is your twelve." he said, standing directly in front of her. He walked a small way to her right. "This is your one." he walked in a circle, numbering the positions at regular intervals until he was standing in front of her again. "Easy right?" the Commander asked. "Yes, Commander." Said Tali. The Commander grinned in a way that had begun to unnerve Tali as it was invariably followed by some kind of unpleasant, and often exhausting, task. "Well then. When I call a number, I want you to turn to face that direction. Keep in mind that the positions are relative to whatever direction you are facing at the time." Tali nodded. "Six o'clock" called the Commander and, after a moment of frantically trying to remember where that was, she turned around to face directly away from him. "Too slow, Zorah. Nine o'clock." By the end of her two hour training session, Tali had managed more or less memorise the clock positions, although she was still too slow to react for the Commander to be satisfied. She was also irrationally annoyed at humans' obsessive compulsive need to move clocks around every hour.

* * *

C-Sec Officer Garrus Vakarian

"Ground team, report to the conference room for briefing."  
Garrus stowed his rifle and headed for the upper deck. He was joined in the lift by Tali. "The Commander said he wants me to sit in on mission briefings from now on." She explained. Garrus could sympathise with the poor girl. The Commander had recently changed from giving direct instructions for how to avoid his faux ambushes to simply calling out the attacker's location using his strange 'clock positions' and it had had a drastic effect on her rate of success. He noticed Tali shifting her weight nervously. "Don't worry, the practice pistol was on the armoury workbench when I left." he said, taking a guess at what Tali was nervous about. He couldn't see her face behind the visor but he got the impression that Tali smiled. "That's a relief." she said, "I'm still getting the hang of those clock positions and I'd hate for you to get caught in the crossfire. Although, I guess blue _is _your colour." Garrus laughed, surprised at the joke from the timid young quarian. The elevator finally finished its slow ascent and Garrus and Tali walked together into the briefing room. Garrus took the seat furthest from Wrex. He didn't have a problem with Wrex exactly, he was just worried that, being a krogan, Wrex might decide to rip him apart on principle. When everyone was seated, the Commander activated the screen behind him, showing an unattractive red-brown planet. "This is Therum, a backwater human colony with a population of just over thirty thousand. The population is concentrated around the polar regions. Scans have picked up several geth ships in atmosphere over this region." A glowing dot appeared near the planet's equator. "Now, this might have something to do with our target Doctor T'Soni or it may be completely unrelated. We need to check it out regardless. Any geth activity could lead us to Saren." The Commander pushed a button and the view on the screen changed to an image of an area of very rough terrain. "This is where the geth activity is concentrated. Scans show some kind of underground structure in this area." He highlighted the northern part of the map. "This is probably what the geth are interested in. Unfortunately, the nearest stretch of flat terrain large enough to drop the Mako onto is twenty clicks south." He shut off the screen. "While Therum is technically a garden world, I want everyone in full environmental seals. The operational zone is in an active sulphur volcano and we'll be following a lava flow most of the way to our entry point."

* * *

_Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya_

Tali listened as the Commander moved on to logistical details. He was bringing the whole team, even though it meant a slightly uncomfortable squeeze in the mako. While he finished and dismissed the team, Tali waited. As soon as the door closed, leaving the two of them alone, the Commander turned to face her. "Don't bother asking, Zorah, it's not going to happen."  
"But Commander, it's the geth. I could…"  
"No." said the Commander in a tone that brooked no argument, "You're making good progress, Zorah, but you are _not _ready yet. You are not coming on this mission."  
Tali sighed and nodded. "Yes, sir." she said.  
"Cheer up, Zorah." Said the Commander, "At the rate you're going, you'll be on the ground getting shot at with the rest of us in no time."


End file.
